Code Xana Episode 9: Firestorm
by James the Lesser
Summary: Xana attacks but like normal it isn't how powerful the attack it is how sophisticated it is!  And what it does to the group...


**Code Xana Episode 9: Firestorm**

**Author: James the Lesser/The Bunnyman**

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own These Characters! Moonscape Does! Actually, I own most of these characters, I made them up, but the place and the settings and the back round stuff is Moonscoop.**

**Please read my episodes, 53-119 plus the OVA of Code Lyoko to know what is going on. Oh and Code Xana the Movie and Episode 1-8**

Krieger is in the gym, alone, working out. He had tried to get Sanne to come but she was still upset over something and didn't feel like doing anything. At least that's what Skitz said, last Krieger saw Sanne was talking on her computer to Dante. He is using a training dummy Jim had ordered years ago for himself and his martial arts classes. It may not have been as advanced as the one at home but he could still imagine a certain persons face on it. "Why, does she, care about him!" He kicks, then does a palm thrust into the dummy.

"Krieger I don't think Jim would like it if you broke his training dummy." Skitz was looking for Krieger and knew where she would find him. "I need to talk to you about something."

"If it involves a pink haired girl I don't want to hear about it." Krieger continues assaulting the practice dummy.

"Yes you do." Skitz walks towards Krieger. "You didn't hear what Samantha said or know what she did. She freaking snapped!" Skitz grabs Krieger's arm to get his attention. He grabs her arm back and flips her over his shoulder.

"You should know not to touch me when I'm in training mode." He helps Skitz back up. "And like I care what Samantha did? Boo hoo she yelled at Sanne."

"Are you really that messed up over Dante?" Skitz rolls her eyes. "Sanne is burying her nose in Super Computer work to keep what Samantha said out her mind. Samantha doesn't think we can handle Xana and called her names. You should have heard her, I never, never heard Samantha talk like that about anyone."

"What did she call her? What could be so bad that you'd expect me to believe that's why she spends all her time talking to the Digital Jerk."

"It wasn't just what Samantha called her it was how, and when she smacked her I was scared. I tried to stop her and she smacked me! Have you ever seen Samantha hit anyone?"

"Well, no, I guess not."

"Like I said Samantha snapped when she heard about Xana being free. I understand though, our parents spent years fighting Xana and now he's free again. But she remembers a Xana powerful enough to destroy the planet and this one, well, he made rain hot. What kind of an attack is that?" _Now that it was over_…

"Then why doesn't she talk to you? Or me?" They were her friends, Dante was, not a friend but a useful tool. Krieger couldn't see Dante as being human even if he was born from one. Dante was, and always would be to Krieger, a creation of Xana.

"I understand some of the stuff they talk about but then they get into way strange things. Quantum String acting as Boolean that interacts with the Hyper Velocity Combabulator and the canoodle valve, or something." Skitz laughs a little at the joke. "She wants to prove to herself that she can handle and beat Xana and that means someone who can help with the programs and Super Computer."

"I could help her, I know about computers."

"Then go volunteer Krieger." Skitz shakes her head. "I can't believe you are so jealous about Dante. Doesn't Sanne jump at the chance to train with you? Unless she's really messed up over something doesn't she always have time for training and going to the exercise room with you?" Krieger thinks about it.

"Well, that's so she can become a better Lyoko Warrior and fight if Xana targets her on Earth."

"Partially, it is also so she can spend time with you. Why do you think she doesn't come to me or Ark? We know martial arts, boxing, wrestling, some street styles. She doesn't because she doesn't have a huge crush on either one of us but won't admit it. She tries to ignore her feelings by saying we have to focus on Xana and she'll have time for things after we get Xana locked back in a Tower."

"Whatever, I'm 'just' Krieger. If you don't want to spar or anything could you leave me alone?"

"No, Sanne is miserable. You're miserable, talk to her." Krieger ignores her. "Fine, next time you want advice go to Ark." Skitz leaves Krieger in the gym not knowing what was about to happen.

"What's that noise?" Krieger had gone into the exercise room of the gym and hears a hissing noise. He looks around but can't find the source of the noise. "I know I'm not hearing things." He tries to ignore it and gets on the exercise bike. After a few minutes he starts to breathe heavily as he pushes himself. He has the maximum resistance and pushes himself to stay about forty five kilometers an hour. He soon becomes light headed and has to stop. "What's wrong with me?" He stumbles off the bike as he starts to become very dizzy. "No, this, I feel like when the Hydrocell leak was going on." That was it, the hissing noise was a Hydrocell line used for heating! "A leak, a hole, something must be broken. I have to get out." Krieger stumbles out of the exercise room. He gets to the gym doors and escapes. He takes deep breaths of fresh air and walks towards the main school building. When he stops feeling dizzy he starts to run, he had to report the leak. He gets to the entrance and walks in when there is a loud explosion.

"Aaaaa!" Several students scream as a wave of heat hits them. Glass and brick and other building materials fly through the air. Several students are hit with shrapnel. The shockwave from the explosion shatters the glass doors of the main entrance, the windows of the building, and the windows of the dorm building. The explosion continues through the Hydrocell line towards the main container, a four thousand gallon metal canister buried underground. When the fire gets to the tank another explosion happened blasting earth and rock into the air.

"Oh my God!" Skitz is blasted with shattering glass. "Sanne!"

"What was that!?" Sanne had been even closer to the window, sitting at her computer. She pulls a shard of glass from her cheek. Thankfully the glass has missed her eyes but she has several shards sticking out of her skin. "Skitz, are you ok?"

"I don't know." Skitz was sitting far enough away that the glass didn't have the force to pierce her skin. "What was that?"

"I, it, it's not Xana." No activated Tower was found by the Super Scan. "Oh my God…" Sanne looks out the window and sees what is left of a building that used to be the gym. "Where did you say Krieger was?" The shock of the explosion kept Sanne from putting any thoughts together.

"In the gym." Skitz looks out the window and sees what Sanne had seen. "Krieger…" Skitz and Sanne both realize what has happened. Krieger was in the gym, the gym was gone, he was gone.

"No, he, this has to be Xana…" Sanne brings up the Super Scan. "We, we can do a return, but it won't bring him back." Sanne starts to cry.

"Don't, he, maybe he got out." Skitz struggles but can't keep herself from crying. A friend had been killed, not by the enemy, but by something else. "Call him, we don't know if he's, gone." Sanne doesn't stop crying so Skitz gets her phone out and calls Krieger, no answer.

Ark and Mira are scared. There had been a huge explosion that knocked down the far side of the Library. Ark assumed it was Xana attacking and is even more sure of it when the flames seem to go after him. "Mira get out of here!" They run out of the emergency doors of the Library.

"What are you doing?!" Mira sees Ark split off for the woods.

"I have to go somewhere! Just get to the dorms and don't worry about me!" Ark gets his phone out. "Guys, I'm on my way."

"What?" Skitz is still in shock and trying not to break down over Krieger.

"Xana's attacking! Call Sanne, she's…" Skitz interrupts him.

"It isn't Xana, no activated Tower." He hears her crying.

"What's wrong? Break a nail?"

"No, Krieger, he was in the gym, training." Ark stops running and looks back. The gym, it was gone.

"No…" Ark sits down on the ground. "God no, not, no…" They had just lost Krieger to Xana, except his sister said there was no activated Tower. "But, how, how did it happen? If Xana didn't activate a Tower, then, it was an accident?"

"Yes…" Skitz hangs up and continues to cry with Sanne.

Ambulance sirens and fire truck sirens blare as they try to find victims and survivors as the firefighters fight the growing fire. The fire seems to be alive as it seems to flee from the foam firefighters use to put out fires. It was more effective then water and spread farther with the same pressure. "We found another one." Two paramedics find a teenage boy in the entrance of the main school building. He was bleeding from a wound on his head. "He's breathing. It's a miracle, another one found breathing." So far every student and staff member caught in the explosion was only injured. No deaths, no fatalities, after an explosion that measured on the Richter Scale. "Neck brace, and some bandages, we need to stop the bleeding!" Another paramedic comes over with some medical equipment.

"Hello? I have sensed pulses…" Dante had appeared in a screen and sees Sanne and Skitz crying. "What is wrong? Then he is attacking even though I could not find the Tower."

"What? Pulses, but the Super Scan didn't find an activated Tower."

"I have not found the Tower either Skitz. I believe it is in the 5 Sector. What has he done?"

"He, he got Krieger."

"I'm sorry, but, the Tower needs to be deactivated before he harms anyone else. Skitz, Sanne, I can't do it without you." Dante waits a couple of minutes but the girls don't do anything. "I need your help, I am sorry you lost your friend but you will lose more if Xana continues his attack. You need to…" Sanne throws her Jpocket at the flat panel monitor breaking it and knocking it off the desk. "I know you can still hear me, please, before someone else suffers the same fate as your friend."

"I'll go, Sanne, she won't be able to help us." Skitz still had hope that Krieger had left the gym, maybe coming to talk to Sanne. But then why wouldn't he answer his phone? She gets her phone out.

"What?" Ark was still sitting on the ground in the woods when his sister calls him.

"Dante found an activated Tower, we need to deactivate the Tower and do a return to the past."

"Why? Xana already got Krieger."

"Yeah and he might get us next!" Skitz sees the fire burning. The library had caught on fire, the fire had spread to the woods, and the fire seemed to be moving towards a certain place in the woods. "Ark, I'll meet you at the Factory!" Skitz hangs up and calls the Hermitage. "Samantha!"

"What is going on? Are you all ok?" Samantha had felt the ground shake when the explosion happened and had been watching the news shocked by what had happened.

"The fire, it's spreading through the woods. It might reach the Hermitage if it keeps burning!"

"Are you all ok?" Samantha had been too nervous to call Jim or Sanne not wanting to hear bad news.

"I, I just wanted to warn you about the fire." Skitz hangs up on Samantha.

"No, she has to be ok." Samantha calls Sanne. "Honey?" She hears crying. "Sanne, it's you're…"

"Shut up! You were right, I couldn't do it!"

"Sanne, I, do what?" Samantha's memory had been blanked by the modified return to the past and had no idea what Sanne was talking about. She hears a click, Sanne had hung up on her. She calls Jim. "Jim, are they ok? Skitz and Sanne won't tell me what's going on!"

"I'm fine, I'm helping the paramedics. I haven't found them so they are probably ok." Jim had been scared, he didn't know what he would do if he found one of the kids he knew and loved. It was hard enough to pick glass from the bodies of the students he did find but to find ones he had known since they were babies… "Call Krieger, I'll call Ark." They hang up and make the calls. "Ark, are you ok?"

"Jim, I, I have to go." Ark hangs up on Jim.

"Well, at least he answered." Jim helps a paramedic by picking up the other end of a stretcher.

"His voice mail, no, he has to be ok. Probably just got hurt and is going to the hospital." She hangs up and calls Ulrich.

"Hello Samantha, I'm a little busy, if you could call back later I'd be happy to talk." Ulrich was in a meeting going over the expansion of Yumi's and his training videos.

"Ulrich, there's been an explosion at the school."

"A bomb?" Ulrich puts his hand up interrupting the meeting. "Wait, I'm going out to the hallway." Ulrich leaves his office. "What happened?"

"There was a Hydrocell leak. They say there aren't any fatalities but they haven't been able to get to the gym, or what's left of it. I called the kids and Krieger won't answer his phone."

"No, he, he'd be training right now." Ulrich checks the time on a clock in the hallway then does the math for the time difference. He was in the German office of a video company so it was only a couple hours difference. "He'd be in the gym."

"I know, I think Sanne knows he was there, she wouldn't stop crying." Samantha hears Ulrich take a deep breath. "Maybe, maybe he was doing something else, they've been taking kids to the hospital. I'm going there to see if Krieger is there."

"I'm calling Yumi. We'll take the first plane there."

"I'm sure he's in the hospital with minor injuries. The news said the worse was a girl with burns but she'd be ok. Don't panic, I'm, I'm calling Aelita."

"Ok, I'll call Odd after I get a hold of Yumi." They hang up.

"Stay calm, he's fine, he, he's at the hospital. His phone was taken and that's why he doesn't answer it." Samantha keeps telling herself this to make her believe it. She leaves the Hermitage and sees a wall of flames headed for the Hermitage. She turns around and sees another wall of flames, she was surrounded! "It's a firestorm." She looks for a way out and sees one. "Been awhile, hope I can remember my way around." She takes the Hermitage's sewer entrance to the sewers as the flames close in on the Hermitage.

"Dante, if the Tower is in Sector 5 then we need the Transporter. I don't know how to set it up."

"I will Transfer you directly to the edge. I am close to the edge in the Desert Sector. Xana is to preoccupied with his attack to be concerned about us." Dante had been careful at first but when no monsters attacked he ran as fast as he could to the Tower closest to the edge.

"Ok, we're coming." Skitz and Ark take the elevator down to the Scanners and get in. The Scanner doors close and they soon find themselves on Lyoko in the Desert Sector. "How are we getting to Sector 5?" Skitz looks around and sees Dante running towards her. "Dante, how are we getting to Sector 5?"

"The Transporter is coming soon." They stand at the edge of the Sector when a round white orb with a blue Xana Symbol comes and captures them.

"Aaaaa!" The three were not sure this was supposed to happen. When the Transporter gets them to Sector 5 Ark and Skitz hold their stomachs. "I don't feel too good."

"Same here Skitz." The room stops spinning and a door opens.

"We have to hit the switch then find the Tower." Dante leads the two into the first room. "I do not know were to go or even what to look for."

"Don't look at me." Ark puts his hands up. "I have no idea what to look for."

"We need to go to the next room." They run and find a passage way. They run through it and find a room with five Creepers.

"I'm willing to bet this room has the switch." Ark gets his disc out and jumps on it. "Skitz keep Dante safe, I'm looking for the Switch." Ark flies around the room as the Creepers fire lasers. His disc blocks the lasers while Skitz uses her clubs to block the lasers being fired at her.

"I can't sense it, this Sector is unlike the other four." Dante had tried to help the only way he knew how, sense Towers.

"We'll find it, hey, that looks different." Ark sees something on the wall near the ceiling. "Hope that's the switch." He flies up to something sticking out and pushes it. When he does the room changed and a new door opens. "Cool."

"Ark, a little help!" Skitz was still blocking lasers from the Creepers.

"I'm coming, hold on." Ark flies down from behind two Creepers and slams into them disc first. A third Creeper turns and fires on Ark who does a back flip to dodge it.

"Got ya!" Skitz ran forward while Ark distracted the Creepers and destroyed the two Creepers Ark had hit. She turns and blocks a laser from a fourth Creeper. "Ark!"

"I'm trying!" Ark jumps off his disc and shoves his claws into the Eye of the third Creeper destroying it. He uses his psychic connection to the disc to bring it and hit the fourth Creeper destroying it.

"Wait, I counted five Creepers the first time." Skitz looks around and sees the fifth Creeper crawling along the wall above Dante. "Dante, duck!" He drops to the floor as lasers fly above him. Skitz runs and uses Dante's back as a spring board to get up in the air and destroy the last Creeper. "Ok, let's find that Tower now." They run through the passage and find a new room but no Tower.

"We have to find that Tower." Ark was hoping somehow Krieger had made it and that if they did a return to the past they would be able to heal his injuries. The explosion was big enough to destroy the wall of the library but maybe… There had to be hope. "We should take a left leaving a mark until we find a mark and turn right." They go left and find another room.

"Go right." The three on Lyoko look up in surprise.

"Sanne?"

"Go right, then go past that room and take a left." Sanne had made it to the Factory after the dorm building was evacuated. She didn't want to stay at the school with the reporters and the paramedics and the chaos.

"Ok, we hear you." The three on Lyoko follow Sanne's directions and find the Tower guarded by more Creepers. "Ark, protect Dante."

"Skitz don't do anything dangerous. We, we already lost Krieger."

"I won't do anything Mom and Dad wouldn't do." Skitz gets her clubs out.

"Like that's supposed to make me feel better?" Ark stays with Dante as Skitz walks towards a group of four Creepers.

Back on Earth a young male patient is in the operating room. His head wound has caused swelling in the brain and they must do something to relieve the pressure if they wanted to keep him alive. "Scalpel, cut, towel." A surgeon has cut the skull open but the pressure is still too much. "Spreaders, insert." He gives quick one word commands to make sure there is no confusion. The machine starts to beep, the heart rate was dropping fast. "30ccs…" He does his best to keep the child alive but there is only so much a human could do.

"Back off ugly." Skitz kicks a Creeper away as she wrestles with another one. She had destroyed one but the other three were ganging up on her.

"Dante, keep an eye out, I have to help Skitz." Ark gets on his disc and flies towards the mayhem. He uses his tail and catches a Creeper with it. He drags the Creeper away from his sister and slams it into the far wall. The Creeper is dazed but not beaten. It fires lasers at Ark who uses the disc as a shield.

"I got them Ark just keep Dante safe!" Skitz hits a Creeper with a club on the Eye destroying it.

"He's safe!" Ark, on the disc, drops down towards the Creeper he had dragged away and slams the disc into the Creeper destroying it. "You having fun there Sis?" Skitz and the last Creeper are circling each other waiting for the opportunity to attack the other.

"Barrels of it. More fun then a barrel of monkeys." Skitz laughs as her joke gets to Ark.

"I'm not a monkey!" Ark wraps his tail around his waist. "You deal with the Creeper I'm getting Dante to the Tower." Ark turns around to see a giant octopus floating behind Dante. "Dante!" Ark flies at the monster aiming for the Eye. A tentacle comes up and knocks him off of the Disc. The monster floats after Dante who is running away. Ark gets up and runs after the monster. "I have to stop him!" Ark runs as fast as he can but won't get there in time.

"That's, that's the Scypo, Zippo, whatever our parents called it." Skitz lunges at the Creeper getting hit with a laser but hitting the Creeper with a club destroying it.

"The Schipizoa, what is it doing here?" Dante is running for the Tower when the Schipizoa catches him.

"No!" Ark is still to far away. "Need to go faster…" He sprints forward faster then normal. "Whoa, was that Super Sprint?" Ark shakes his head no time to think about it. Now he needs to jump on top of the Schipizoa but even with Lyoko physics he wouldn't make it. He stops and looks around then gets an idea. He runs at the Scyphozoa and unwraps his tail. He moves his tail between his legs then uses it like a pole to launch himself into the air. He lands on top of the Schipizoa. "Where's the Eye, there!" He reaches out with his claws when a laser hits him. Xana had sent more Creepers! "No, Dante!" Ark is hit again being knocked off the Schipizoa.

"I got him!" Skitz uses the blades coming out of her elbows to cut the tentacles of the Schipizoa freeing Dante. Dante gets up and runs away as fast as he can for the Tower.

"I'm getting you out of there." Sanne had seen her friends lose life points and saw that the Schipizoa was still in the room. It might go after her friends now that Dante had made it into the Tower.

"Ouch, man, that burns." Ark rubs his back where he had been hit by lasers from the Creepers. "I must have been hit four, five times, how much damage do the lasers do?"

"Ten for each hit. Xana and his monsters are a lot weaker then when our parents fought them." But Xana had never killed one of them. He had killed others, and got William, but William wasn't a member of the group until after he died. Aelita had been lost when Lyoko itself deleted her but that wasn't Xana. Even as weak as he was he was able to kill one of the members. "Good job Dante, return to the past now." The white bubble comes out.

Skitz, Ark, and Sanne run to the gym. They throw the doors open and find… No one in the gym. "No, he has to be here!" They run over to the doors leading to the exercise room. "No, Krieger, but, if, his body would be here." Sanne sits down on a weight bench. "What did he do?"

"Don't cry yet Sanne." Ark gets his phone out and calls Krieger, no response. "Oh crap." He hangs up and puts his phone away. "Maybe, maybe he was tired after training and took a nap."

"No, I failed, we, we have to call our parents. We have to tell them what happened." They had agreed, if they ever lost someone, if Xana ever killed, they would call their parents.

"What happened?" Krieger walks into the exercise room after taking a shower. He had forgotten his water bottle and was going to get it when he heard someone in the exercise room.

"Krieger!" Sanne, Skitz, and even Ark get up and hug him hard.

"Xana?" Krieger is able to get away from the three who are acting strangely.

"No, you, you don't remember?" Sanne hugs him again to make sure he was really there.

"I was in the gym. I left then heard something loud before something hit me in the head." Krieger rubs the back of his head, no lump, no mark, the return had fixed him.

"Here we are crying over him and he thinks we're Xana." Ark smacks Krieger on the back. "Man you have no idea how freaked out we were."

"About what? What happened?" The three tell Krieger what happened. "Wow that was close, if, if Xana hadn't used the Hydrocell in a previous attack I wouldn't have known why I was getting lightheaded."

"I'll take luck over skill any day." Ark laughs. "I have to go help Mira with her homework. She went to a public school before coming here. It's amazing anyone from a public school can walk and chew gum. She wasn't even on Imaginary Numbers and Shapes at her old school."

"That's sad. Speaking of homework, I have to get back to mine." Skitz leaves with Ark and they go separate ways.

"Well, I was about ready to go do homework, but if you want to train or something…" Krieger grabs his water bottle and takes a drink.

"No, I need to work on the Super Computer. We almost lost you. If I had found something, got something to work, discovered something my father buried it might not have happened." Sanne leaves for her room.

"Want help?"

"I, maybe a fresh set of eyes would help. I have most of the things I've gone over on my Jpocket. If you want you can look it over again. If I missed anything you should find it."

"Ok, what am I looking for?" Sanne stares at him. "That was a joke. We need to find what ever program your dad used to lock Xana in the Tower, right?" Sanne nods. "Anything else?"

"Wouldn't hurt to find the vehicle programs. I've looked and can't find them anywhere."

"Ok, if I find them do I get a prize?"

"You can get the Overbike. I bet it's faster then that disc Ark uses." They laugh a little. They go to Sanne's room and work together to find the programs they needed to fight Xana.


End file.
